“It has come to the attention of this office that numerous occupied units at the Commons at
Royal Landing do not have gas service or functioning furnaces,” the city’s department of public
service wrote on Oct. 31, 2012. “When the occupants are unable to obtain heat with the mechanicals
that are in place the dwelling becomes uninhabitable.”

Why Mosley’s apartment lacked heat — and who is ultimately responsible for heating the complex’s
units — is a question being hashed out by attorneys for the complex, Mosley and the city.

The complex’s owners say that residents are responsible for the gas and heat in their apartments
and that Mosley had been told not to use her stove for heat days before Carlos died. Furthermore,
spokesman Mark Weaver said, Mosley damaged her thermostat by using it as an incense holder, causing
the boiler to shut off.

Mosley’s lawyer, Sam Shamansky, denies that. “The notion that she was burning incense in the
thermostat was a blatant lie,” he said. “It’s beyond stupid. It’s also untrue.”

Whitehall City Attorney Michael Shannon said that while the city feels the responsibility for
heat lies with the owner, it’s not taking any action until officials meet with the complex’s New
Jersey-based owners and inspect mechanical and electrical equipment in its nearly 50 buildings.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Shannon said.

Whitehall public records show that the 250-unit complex has had the city’s attention.

Since 2008, when it was known as Fairport Gardens under different owners, it has been warned
about 56 code violations, including overflowing trash, potholes and weeds. In 2010, the year before
it became the Commons at Royal Landing, city inspectors found hundreds of problems in the complex,
including missing smoke detectors, falling ceilings and cockroaches.

Some units were listed as needing a “total remodel.” Inspectors didn’t skimp on punctuation: “
MOLD!!!!!!!!!” was noted in nearly every room of one apartment.

The new owners of the Commons — who include Israel “Izzy” Steinberg and Isaac Nasar, part owners
of a West Side apartment complex who were working to clean it up when an electrical fire there
killed five people in 2008 — took over in September 2011. They set about transforming the crumbling
complex, Weaver said.

City permits for work done on the complex since 2011 estimate project costs at about $300,000,
but Weaver said owners have put $1.5 million into the property and slashed its vacancy rate from 70
percent to 4 percent. They also had every boiler inspected in 2013, he said.

Heat within the complex has been a problem, Weaver said, because of tenants not paying their gas
bills. In 2012, he said the landlord approached the city for help in deeming apartments without
heat uninhabitable, requiring immediate move-outs.

“All of a sudden, gas bills were being paid,” he said. “Heat would flow into apartments, not
(from) space heaters used.”

Still, tenants say that despite landlord assertions, problems persist at the complex. Residents
have complained about the lack of heat inside and problems with trash and animals outside.

Arron Meredith, who moved his 5-year-old son and pregnant wife into the complex in December,
said the apartment has never been fully heated. Meanwhile, cockroaches crawled inside their kitchen
cabinets, a problem he said management didn’t move to solve until he threatened legal action.

“They have been treating us as if we
were the commoners at a royal landing,” he said.

Mosley, who could still face criminal charges in her son’s death, moved into her apartment in
September. Within two months, she had called and written about several issues with the apartment,
including an unbalanced stove that was leaning back.

On Jan. 8, she called to say there was no heat in the apartment. Weaver said a repairman found
the next day that the radiator covers had been removed and the aluminum pieces inside were
bent.

The heat was off again on Feb. 18. During a mold inspection, Weaver said, a staff member and
contractor noticed that Mosley was using the open oven for heat and told her to stop. Two days
later, a worker replaced the thermostat and reported that the heat was working.

They didn’t hear anything else from Mosley, he said.

At some point, though, her apartment went cold again. The day after Carlos died, workers checked
the boiler for the apartment and found that the pilot light was out. They lit it again, they
reported, with no problem.